If Allen Ginsberg is one of the leading poets of the Beat Generation, Bob Dylan is one of the leading musicians of that era. In November 1971, the two came together to record a series of Ginsberg’s poems, as well as some original songs written on the spot and adapted from other poems. Many of these tracks were later re-recorded for Ginsberg’s compilation album First bluesreleased in 1983.
Ginsberg once described an interaction with Dylan that led to the 1971 recordings, sharing the story of a poetry reading at NYU where Ginsberg improvised a blues song. He said that after the reading he went home and the phone rang. It was Dylan asking: Do you always improvise like that? And I said: Not always, but I can. I used to do it with [Jack] Kerouac under the Brooklyn Bridge all the time.”
Dylan was well versed in improvisation, rehearsing with The Band on Basement Tapes Previously. The resulting paths are mirrored with Ginsberg basement bars, Pulling similar improvisational methods according to an analysis by Chair’s notes.
Ginsberg continued:[Dylan] He came to our apartment with [David] Amram and the guitar, we started making up something about “Vomit Express”, distortion for a long time, but we didn’t finish it. He said, “Oh, we should get together in the studio and do it” [and] Then he showed me the three-string blues pattern on my amp.
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A week-long “eccentric” recording session turns into an improvisational expression of two poets
Guitarist Happy Traum played bass on the recordings and was one of many who attended the session. According to Traum’s recollections, as told in an interview with HyperlockerianBob Dylan called Traum and asked him to learn bass. Traum agreed, and Dylan called him a few months later and asked him to come to town to record with Allen Ginsberg.
“I went to the city and brought the bass with me. I had never met Allen Ginsberg before. Traum said: “It was Allen and Peter Orlowski and his partner David Amram and John Schull and Bob Dylan who organized the whole session… It was a crazy session.” “We were putting music to Allen’s hair. Allen was singing and playing his organ, which he was pumping with one hand and playing with the other. It was a long session all day long. It was crazy, there were successful poets there, and Gregory Corso showed up and he was causing all kinds of chaos because he wanted all the attention for himself. There was a female Tibetan Buddhist lama who was blessing everyone. It was just a really wacky scene.
Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg ride the “Vomit Express” train
Although the recording session was certainly “silly,” a claim backed up by the recordings themselves, there was one thing that stood out about the session – “vomit express.”
As Ginsberg explained, “‘Vomit Express’ was a phrase I got from my friend Lucien Carr, who talked about going to Puerto Rico, and he was traveling a lot, and we were planning a night flight in two weeks, my first trip there.” . He described it as a “vomit train express,” where poor people travel at night on cheap fares, unaccustomed to airplanes, and vomiting from airsickness.
Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg formed an interesting improvisational team during the week-long recording session in New York. The cuts are harsh and wild, but they capture the zeitgeist.
Featured image by PL Gould/IMAGES/Getty Images
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